Kasese District News

Thursday, 8 June 2017

The Kasese District Resident District Commissioner Lt. Col. James Mwesigye has called for fresh investigations into cases of theft by the flying squad attached to Police in Kasese district.

He was this afternoon addressing members of the press shortly after speaking to the coffee traders in Kasese town at the mayor’s garden in Kasese town.

Lt. Col. James Mwesigye says some coffee traders had reported to his office about the alleged theft cases of coffee by the Police attached to the flying squad unit.

Coffee traders’ chairperson in Kasese district Mr. Katsirombyo Bwambale Fred says they were forced to storm the office of the RDC due to the increased cases of coffee thefts in their business.

The commander for the flying squad Rwenzori East and West Regions assistant superintendent of police ASP Marahi Habson reports that that the flying squad Police officers who allegedly stole coffee had started paying back the money.

The commander for the Field Force Unit (FFU) police Mr. Asiimwe Medad also reports that some officers who misbehave in his department were being delt with accordingly.

The man whose funds was stolen Mr. Baduru Kule, was by press time nursing wounds at pride medical centre commonly known as Manasi health unit.

Mr. Baduru disclosed that seven million shillings out of the stolen money was a bank loan and eight million shillings was from his friend, he quickly called for Government intervention.

So far two suspects are in custody, Mumbere Moses and Masuluba Elisha as Police waits to arrest suspects from the flying squad unit.

Wednesday, 7 June 2017

The Kasese district budget for the financial year ending has suffered a major blow arising from reduced donor funding.

According to the district vice chairperson, Elly Magwara, the district had by end of April realised only 890.655m/= out of the expectedShs2,031,655,000 to from Unicef, putting the district budget performance at 41%.

“At the mid-term evaluation at the end of December 2016, adjustments were made on donor support from Shs Shs2,031b to 890.655m/= due to the poor performance from Unicef where disbursements had been affected due to the global economic recession,” Magwara noted.

Magwara, who also doubles as secretary for finance, planning and administration, wason Friday presenting the 2017/2018 financial year budget estimates, worth Shs57, 345,894,051 during the Council sitting held at the district multipurpose hall.

The district had estimated to spend up from Shs53,449,348,000 in the year ending, he said..

But he said the district had continued to budget for Unicef support despite poor performance during the year ending “because the organisation has indicated that they will support the district again.”

Revenue sources

Magwara said the district expected to raise the Shs57,345,894,051 from local revenue (shs1.916,370,000), Central Government (53,097,868,551) and Shs2,331,655,500 from donors, accounting for 3.4%, 92..% and 4.1% respectively.

If the 57,345,894,051/= for service delivery were to be distributed among the residents, each person would have only Shs81,686 to spend on services in the entire 2017/2018 financial year.

Expenditure

He said salaries, including pension and gratuity, are to consume a total of Shs36,631,221,921 or 64% while 11.4bn of the revenue will be spent on recurrent activities to support decentralisation and key service delivery projects.

Shs 4.3bn is to go to development projects especially health, education, roads and production while donor about Shs2.331bn is to go into donor development projects.

He challenged the district leaders to engage the community for additional revenue.

Past achievements

Outlining a catalogue of achievements, which included class room blocks, roads, the district chairman, Godfrey Sibendire Bigogo, he said district had also undertaken the construction of other projects including mini-Irrigation schemes to mitigate the unpredictable weather patterns.

“People owning land along roads should grow trees to avert the increasingly negative climatic changes in the district,” Bigogo urged.

Wednesday, 12 April 2017

KASESE: The
Kasese district chairperson five has threatened to arrest husbands to the
teenagers following the increasing early marriages in the district which has
increased the number of female dropouts in the district.

Basing on the Research
gathered in the district indicate that, teenage pregnancy is reported to be on
increase especially in Kitswamba sub-county, Busongora north in Kasese district
which leaders suspect to have been caused dues to much freedom rendered to the
male youth which urge them to marry at an early stage.

“The youth in this
district have much freedom since their parents have failed to talk to them and
direct them in the right way which could enable them see a bright fight not
looking at marriage as the only way of achieving in life, by arresting husbands
the rest will learn and fear to engage in such useless early marriage issues” Sibendire
bigogo the district boss threatened.

During several
abrupt visits to Kitswamba Health Center III in Busongora North constituency,
the district leaders were shocked by the big number of teenagers who had
thronged the facility for antenatal care.

Kasese
District Chairperson Sibendire Bigogo Geoffrey Thembo had subsequently criticized the high rate of early pregnancy
in the area and called for an immediate sensitization of the people, especially
the men in the area.

Bigogo told monitor reporters that
he was shocked to find out that girls of between 14 to 16 years were having
three or more children.

“I guess these girls were actually
defiled” According to Bigogo,.

In Uganda, 24% of
all female teenagers are either pregnant or have given birth already.

Uganda also has
the one of the world’s highest fertility rate, with the annual growth rate of
3.5% per annum.

Bridget Biira 18 years and a
mother of three children said that she was defiled at the age of 16 while she
was in primary six.

A midwife at the facility
told our reporter that, at least 15 young girls are received daily for
antenatal care.

A section of residents
attributed the problem to scarcity of water which they said forces many
children to trek long distances in search of water.

Swaibu Mujungu, a teacher at
Kitswamba SDA primary school said that young girls in the area were being
waylaid by people luring them into immature relationships.

However, Yusuf Mugoba blamed
his fellow parents for their alleged failure to monitor their children’s
movements.

Simion Kisarali and his wife
Grace Biira who were met at the facility for antenatal care urged teenagers to
always go with their husbands whenever they attend antenatal care.

According to United Nations,each
year roughly 7.3 million girls give birth when they are below the age of 18,
and two million of those are younger.

Therate
of pregnancies in adolescent girls has started to fall in many developing
countries but remains a stubborn problem that damages girls' health and hinders
economic productivity.

Monday, 10 April 2017

Media practitioners and Civil Society members oriented on District information flow and "Konw your Local Government Budget".

By MORIS MUMBERE,

e-society

KASESE: The Kasese
district deputy chief administrative officer Lillian Kobusinge has ensued
censorship to the media on information flow concerning the district.

Speaking on the
orientation training organized by the Kasese E-Society ICT centre in partnership with The Collaboration on International ICT policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) aimed at equipping ICT
participants with knowledge on how to access relevant public information and using ICTs to monitor and report service delivery issues.

Kobusinge who was this
afternoon of Friday opening a one day orientation training of media
practitioners and civil society groups in the district at Kasese district
E-society centre, emphasized that any information concerning the district must
be approved and sanctioned by the district chief administrative officer.

The deputy Chief
Executive officer, urged the media to always seek clarification and comments
from the CAO’s office on any newsworthy matter involving the district.

She called for
observance of the access to information act by the media practitioners and
objectivity in their media reports as these will help eliminate bias in the
course of news broadcast.

The Kasese district
information officer John Thawithe noted that everyone has a right to
information access but in line with the rule of law.

Samuel Mumbere one of
the facilitator urged all media practitioners to utility the resource centre to
get quality information which can build the society,

He further noted that
the district is ready to support any media house which will continue updating
the public on several government programs.

Thursday, 6 April 2017

KASESE: A 95 Billion Project of Mitigating
Kasese floods by Arab contractors has commence on river Nyamwamba to reduce on
the daily suspected periods of flooding of several rivers channel in Kasese district
which will take nearly six months

“ This contract was awarded to Arab Contractors
Company at a tune of shillings 95
billion (2715622$) and it’s to be finished in a period of five months” Eng.
Mohamed Eldesouky the resident eng. from the government of Egypt said in an
interview.

The five months project of protection works for flood mitigation in rwenzori
sub region, Kasese district which is funded by the Egyptian government under
the ministry of water resources and irrigation was delayed by security threats
resulting from the November 2016 Kasese clashes that left hundreds of people
killed at the obusinga bwa Rwenzururu palace.

The retraining works are centering on excavating and de-silting of the river
channels at some identified hotspots to remove stones and other debris from the
main stream of Nyamwamba river to flush floods effectively.

According to Eng. Mohamed Eldesouky the residents engineer for Arab contractors,
said they want to de-silt the upper stream of river Nyamwamba as a mitigation
measure to avoid accumulation of debris that may limit the river channel
capacity during floods.

Eng. Mohamed said that, after cleaning the river channel, they will put gabions
on the river banks to protect the most vulnerable sections along Nyamwamba
River where flow
velocities are extremely high.

“Our mitigation interventions will be carried out on three most severely
affected areas along river Nyamwamba that is to say, road barrier primary
school, Kilembe mines hospital, Bulembia primary school, later on katiri school and the church shall be
added” Eng. Mohamed added.

He noted that the main problem has been the blockage of some cross sections of
river Nyamwamba which couldn’t accommodate the proper flow of the river adding
that they are now digging it ten meters deep to give the river enough space for
water flow.

“We started our role almost one and half week ago at the site of Bulembia
primary with about four excavators working on removing of stones from the water
mainstream channel then thereafter we shall descend to Kyanzuki Bridge up to
Kilembe hospital”, Eng. Mohamed further added.

The retraining process was welcomed by the Kasese municipality parliamentary
legislator Hon. Robert centenary who praised the Egyptian government for the
funding geared towards saving lives and properties of Kasese residents.

“Am very glad that the project of rechanneling river Nyamwamba has finally
commenced and this is a very big step by government in saving lives of communities
around river Nyamwamba especially Kilembe mines hospital, Bulembia, Katiri and
road barrier primary schools”, Centenary told daily monitor in an interview.

Flooding has happened twice leading to the closure of Kilembe mines hospital that
was in May 2013 and May 2014 following destructive floods that ravaged the
entire hospital buildings and causing displacement of patients.

The floods were triggered by a heavy downpour that caused River Nyamwamba to
burst its banks.

What residents say

According to Rev. Sister Theopista Basemera the Kilembe mines hospital senior
administrator, the current construction works on river Nyamwamba is a big
relief to the hospital looking at the turbulent situation the hospital went
through during the previous floods.

Sr. Theopista narrated that, they have been living
in fear of fresh floods invading the hospital any time because of the current rainy
season experienced in the district.

“For the last three years from 2013 to 2015 we have been experiencing floods
whereby sixty four houses at the hospital were washed away by floods, we are
now very happy that construction works have began and now we are assure that
looking at the work being done, floods will not affect our hospital anymore,”
Sr. Theopista said.

Utilities:

At least during every rainy season for the last four
years, River Nyamwamba which is situated on the slopes of Rwenzori Mountain
bursts its banks, leaving behind a soar of destruction of lives where over nine
people were reported dead and properties worth millions of money destroyed.

The river channel is now being constructed with protective bearers against
destruction of schools such as Bulembia and road barrier primary schools which
have for the last four consecutive floods suffered a tale of destruction
including Kilembe mines Hospital which
nearly closed during the 2014 Kasese floods.

Friday, 31 March 2017

KASESE; Vanilla dealers in the Rwenzori region have hailed the district
council for its stand to guard against middlemen who are exploiting the
farmers.

The district council sitting yesterday approved an ordinance on
vanilla production.

This was after the motion mover who doubles as the district Youth
and Secretary for Production, Marketing and Natural Resources, Gideon Sanyu
Ntabose told the council that the Kasese district was doing badly in terms of
Vanila production because of increasing cases of the cash crop.

Allan Mayanja Nturanke, the Production Manager for ESCO Uganda told
press shortly after the motion that he was extremely happy for the gesture of
the district by guarding vanilla farmers from thieves and middlemen he said
were exploiting farmers.

Police said that vanilla farmers have always been forced to harvest
immature vanilla beans because they fear thieves who he said were terrorizing
the community where the crop was heavily grown.

Annet Mutsangwa, the Female district Councilor for Mahango and
Kyalhumbna sub-counties said that the ordinance asked the district commercial
office to guard and monitor the activities of vanilla buyers.

Kasese district chairperson, Geoffrey Sibendire Thembo Bigogo
sounded a strong warning to thieves saying that their days were numbered.

Kasese:
Parasitic Striga weed is costing a huge toll of maize farmers as their maize
crops continue to loss yields season after season.

“The research we have indicate that striga weed has affected over
80% maize yield leaving farmers in a hug lose which we feel has to be
addressed” Julius Rukara the district agriculture officer said.

The Kasese district agriculture officer Mr. Rukara
while addressing the awareness meeting organized b y NARO and national crop
resources research institution narrated that farmers have been reporting a
strange weeding without signs but no prevention attain towards killing it yet
it has affected major crops that benefit farmers.

“Striga hermonthica is the most dangerous weed that
produces more than 200,000 seeds plant per season” Rukara noted.

Rukara further noted that the speed at which the
weed multiplies in the farms cannot be controlled by many pesticides in a
season.

Dr. Charles kasozi lwanga a researcher from national
crop resources research institution blamed the rapid spread of the weed on
farmers due to poor farming practices and sharing of garden tools from one
affected farm to the fresh gardens leaving many farms with the disease.

Dr. kasozi added that most farmers fail to indentify
the affect crops with signs like stuntedness of cross, wilting where crops tend
to dry up, yellowing of plants which happens when most of the crops are planted
in the highly striga weed places.

He further added that, most farmers harvest crops
and put them on the ground instead of harvesting them in a bag so that they
don’t get striga from the ground since the disease stays in dust.

One of the farmers Hilary Masereka raised a concern
following same areas of Ibuga and hima in Kasese, where people have started
smoking the weeds after realizing that farmers hip the affected plants on the
road side and smokers take them without knowing that they are affected.

Hilary noted that the some smokers may plant them
with interest that they continue smoking without knowing that they have planted
weed.

However the deputy RDC Minadabu Muhindo blamed the
scientist for not making one clear medicine that can cure the disease instead
the bring several varieties which confuse farmers and end up applying whatever
product they have been told by sellers in the market.

Muhindo said, scientist brought roundup, wild king,
wind master saying one of these dry the weed and dies completely, but the end
result none of them has ever worked causing confusision to the farmers which
has caused the persistence of the weed due to lack of specific pesticide
towards the disease.

He advised agriculture consultant to stand on one
chemical purposely for one item to have a lasting solution not mixing up issues
of preventing instead of cure.

“research say if they bring a lasting solution their
product lose market, which influences most of the scientist to continue making
more chemicals to yields money from farmers, instead of a total redaction
measure in the district” Muhindo said.

Research
indicate that Transformer oil is used for chips and chapatti making

By
MORIS MUMBERE,

E-society

KASESE:
Electricity companies in Kasese have warned the public to be vigilant following
the Research made by several power distributing company that transformer oil
that is drained from several transformers in different transmitting point is
current used by chapatti makers from different manufacturing places in the
country.

“We always find most of our transformers drained,
vandalized others linking without any clear notification on who might have
tempered with them and the secrete behind vandalizing them, until when it was
discovered and researched in kenya during a training workshop where we were
informed that the oil is used by chapatti makers” lubega Stephen said.

During the awareness meeting organized by the
electricity regulatory authority held at Verina gardens yesterday the public
tasked the distribution companies to give reasons why power goes off and takes
long to be connected without any notification that has left many lose their
properties due to fire out breaks when power comes back with high voltages
beyond domestic consumption levels.

The Kasese district Umeme engineer for maintenance lubega
Stephan in his response said, thieves break the transformers and disconnect the
power without the companies notice which they notice after some days leaving
the public in darkness since the oil helps in the transformers process.

He added that all along they have been wandering
what the thieves use the oil for but of recent they realized that it’s used for
chapatti making by several venders on streets and other places.

“Had it not been the training we attained in Kanya, as
Umeme Company in Uganda we would continue asking what the transformer oil is used
for” lubega added.

Lubega further noted that the reports made indicate
that the transformer oil favors chapatti and Cheeps makers since it takes long while
cycling on the fry pan to get finished and dry compared to other cooking oils
which are costly that why most of the venders use it.

Lubega added that, another category of people have
stated mixing transformer oil in the cosmetics for their bodies.

He appealed to the public to stand warned and
worried of their health since the oil consists of cooper sulphate (cuso4)
which is harm full for human consumption.

While looking at the effect of the transformer oil
on human consumption the managing director kilembe investment electricity
company Mr. Gideon Mujungu narrated several causes such as lung cutting that
has affected many people in the country, which may result into lung cancer
since the used transformer oil in chapatti making is not good for human
consumption.

Gideon further confirmed its effect basing of live
practice where when drops land on any vegetable or grass it immediately dries
off, and in same area where transformers are placed grass dry due to some
linkages on the transformer that drops the oil.

Gideon indentified other users as those who do
welding work who use the oil for their machine saying all these are being
hunted to find the real person who vandalize company transformers.

The deputy RDC Minadabu Muhindo asked Umeme
management to differentiate the difference between the chapatti cooked by
transformer oil and the original cooking oil so that the public can be on the
alert of such health risks foods by appearance.

The councilor representing Kamaiba ward Mzee Israel
Masereka said he had been tipped on the information while staying in kampala
that cheeps consume a lot of oil and most of the sellers opted to using
transformer oil since it takes long on the pan while cycling.

Efforts to talk to any of the street chapatti and
cheeps makers over the said information were impossible since their daily
duties are always done at night.